Issue(s): Punisher #45
Cover Date: Feb 91
Title: "One way fare"
Credits:
Chuck Dixon - Writer
Todd Smith - Penciler
Dan Bulanadi - Inker
Kevin Kobasic - Assistant Editor
Don Daley - Editor

Review/plot:
Right now Mike Baron is writing both Punisher books. But Chuck Dixon is coming off Moon Knight, and this issue may have been a try-out for him here. This story is Ripped From The Headlines about taxi driver shootings. The Punisher takes up cab driving (in a tricked out taxi from Micro) to flush out the killer.

I love that the "punks with nothing better to do" look like they came straight from an audience-participation viewing of Harlem Nights.

That guy at the bottom of the scan turns out to be a small time mugger, not the killer.

The Punisher is also after a big time meth dealer that has been let out on bail. And when Punisher gets the meth dealer's location he goes after him, even though he has a fare.

That's pretty funny. But the passenger turns out to be the cabbie killer. She was raped after having to walk home after not being able to get a cab, so now she's killing cabbies. Of course, like i said, the cab is tricked out.

Punisher writes in his journal that if she went after rapists, he'd have given her a better gun and some advice. "You have to keep things in perspective. You have to keep your judgment clear." Sure, Frank. Suuuure.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I can't even with that third panel. I... just... what?

You have the montage of Frank's passengers twice, and some broken code and images towards the end.

Thanks, Morgan.

Rough looking and overly-heavy inks from the usually superb Bulanadi. Guess he wasn't used to doing gritty, street level stories.

Granted that she's supposed to be "comic-book insane," buy the killer's motives make no sense here. "I was victimized because i couldn't get a cab, therefore I will kill cab drivers, ensuring that the same thing is *moire* likely to happen int he future!"

I'm pretty sure those three guys with the boom box are commuting from an early 1980s Frank Miller issue of Daredevil.